If you've just eaten a spicy meal and your mouth is burning, you might think cold water would help you find relief. As it turns out, you want that water to be warm.

How-to illustrator Yumi Sakugawa points out many ways to cool down your mouth—from lemons to fatty milk to honey—but notes that if you don't have anything around, warm water is the best option. You just fill your mouth, swish it around for a little while, and spit it back out. This will help remove the leftover spice from your tongue.

They key thing to remember is spitting. Milk is always preferred because of the casein protein it contains, which counteracts the spicy chemical capsaicin, but any liquid will pick up the spice and move it around. That's useless if you swallow, but if you spit you'll get it out of your mouth and not stuck on the back of your tongue and throat. (More on this at wikiHow.)